Charmonium in strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of charmonium states in a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma using semi-analytical and numerical methods, revealing a higher survival probability than previously thought.

Contribution

It introduces a combined semi-analytical and numerical approach to study charmonium dynamics in sQGP, highlighting a new slow dissolution stage.

Findings

Survival probability of charmonia is higher than earlier estimates.

Charm quark pairs undergo a slow dissolving stage during equilibration.

The approach combines Fokker-Planck analysis with Langevin simulations.

Abstract

The growing consensus that a strongly-coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) has been observed at the SPS and RHIC experiments suggests a different framework for examining heavy quark dynamics. We present both semi-analytical treatment of Fokker-Planck (FP) evolution in pedagogical examples and numerical Langevin simulations of evolving charm quark-antiquark pairs on top of a hydrodynamically expanding fireball. In this way, we may conclude that the survival probability of bound charmonia states is greater than previously estimated, as the spatial equilibration of pairs proceeds through a ``slowly dissolving lump'' stage related to the pair interaction.